As for women being the more emotional creatures, God too is emotional. Dictionary.com defines emotion as “an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced.” God has sorrow and anger when His children sin, He has compassion on us in our sinful state, and He has joy when we choose to obey. God is an emotional God, but He is a constant God. His emotions do not change who He is, how He works, etc. As humans, we allow our emotions to control us. Our emotions and God’s emotions are not the same because we are sinful and God is not. However, we have emotions because God has emotions and we were created in the likeness of God. We were created “like” Him.
So now that we’ve established that our emotions are not a weakness, we can talk about controlling them.
As sinful beings, our emotions don’t always steer our hearts and minds the right way. Sometimes we get angry (which isn’t a sin), but allowing the anger to fester causes us to lash out, say things we shouldn’t, or act sinfully. Sometimes we get sad (which isn’t a sin), but allowing sadness to linger can cause us to become depressed.
Side bar: There is a lot of debate these days on whether or not depression is a sin. Personally, I don’t believe it is. However, I believe that to allow yourself to wallow in depression and sadness can cause you to sin in other areas, like self-harm. The Bible says that our body is God’s temple. I don’t think that allowing yourself to stay depressed is a way of taking care of God’s temple. When you realize you are depressed, I believe you should take action to get it under control, whether that’s through counseling, medical treatment, or talking to God and reading His word. Sometimes it takes action only as simple as telling someone who can get you the help you need. You will find what your mind and body needs when you take steps to heal it.
Continuing on…
Our emotions aren’t a weakness and they aren’t necessarily a sin. But as Christians, we have to learn how to control them in order to keep them from becoming a weakness in our Christian walk or turning into sin. Self-control isn’t easy for everyone and it can be one of the hardest things to learn or develop. Here are ways that I learned how to control my emotions and things I do to cope with how I feel:
1. Talk it out with God.
When the feelings come on strong, good or bad, I always take them to God. God has a way of putting how we feel into perspective. Whether we’re excited about something and our first reaction is to start making big plans, or if we’re upset about something and we want to react negatively, God can shed light on how we feel and how we should respond.
2. Turn to God’s Word.
The Bible has become my biggest resource for life. It is literally a life manual that we can carry around with us everywhere. If you don’t have the Bible App, stop right now and download it. Now, a lot of you are probably wondering how the Bible is going to “magically” help you when you get really upset about something. Where do I turn? What book of the Bible talks about being sad? Well here’s the good news. The internet has made life really easy for us. One of my favorite ways to seek out what God says about a particular subject is to go to www.openbible.info/topics or just google search the phrase “What does the Bible say about ______.” Openbible.info will give you a list of verses that talk about any word or phrase you type in. I use this tool every day for every emotion I feel that I need God to speak to. For example, when I’m feeling really down about a situation, I look up what the Bible has to say about encouragement. If I’m stressing or anxious about something, I look up what the Bible says about peace. No matter what the situation is, you can bet God has SOMETHING to say to you about it and if you look hard enough, you will find it.
Emotions can be a tricky thing, and controlling them can be even trickier. But what I love so much about God is that He is not an elusive God. He wants to be our “go to.” He wants to be sought after but He wants more to be found. He wants to know us and for us to know Him so much that He wrote us a love letter years and years before we were even thought of. If we make the decision to really go all in for Him, He will reveal Himself in every aspect of our lives if we allow Him, even the tough ones, like emotions. And the Bible is our key to knowing Him.
Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with your whole heart.
1. Talk it out with God.
When the feelings come on strong, good or bad, I always take them to God. God has a way of putting how we feel into perspective. Whether we’re excited about something and our first reaction is to start making big plans, or if we’re upset about something and we want to react negatively, God can shed light on how we feel and how we should respond.
2. Turn to God’s Word.
The Bible has become my biggest resource for life. It is literally a life manual that we can carry around with us everywhere. If you don’t have the Bible App, stop right now and download it. Now, a lot of you are probably wondering how the Bible is going to “magically” help you when you get really upset about something. Where do I turn? What book of the Bible talks about being sad? Well here’s the good news. The internet has made life really easy for us. One of my favorite ways to seek out what God says about a particular subject is to go to www.openbible.info/topics or just google search the phrase “What does the Bible say about ______.” Openbible.info will give you a list of verses that talk about any word or phrase you type in. I use this tool every day for every emotion I feel that I need God to speak to. For example, when I’m feeling really down about a situation, I look up what the Bible has to say about encouragement. If I’m stressing or anxious about something, I look up what the Bible says about peace. No matter what the situation is, you can bet God has SOMETHING to say to you about it and if you look hard enough, you will find it.
Emotions can be a tricky thing, and controlling them can be even trickier. But what I love so much about God is that He is not an elusive God. He wants to be our “go to.” He wants to be sought after but He wants more to be found. He wants to know us and for us to know Him so much that He wrote us a love letter years and years before we were even thought of. If we make the decision to really go all in for Him, He will reveal Himself in every aspect of our lives if we allow Him, even the tough ones, like emotions. And the Bible is our key to knowing Him.
Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with your whole heart.
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